Category: Typography Assignment

After completing this assignment I can confidently say that I have created a 30 second animation using typography as the style as well as direct and record an actor and animate over it.

I believe that my strengths within this project were definitely within the writing and recording parts of this project. The writing because the script that I came up with matched the style of what advertisement I was coming up with in my head, and even better the voice actor that I asked to record with was a good match too, with help with some of my direction. And with the audio recording I didn’t need to do much editing because we had set up the microphone correctly to record voice (which is an improvement from last time), plus I did get positive feedback about it from my tutors and peers. As for the animation itself many of my peers have stated that it’s a very good and that they like some of the edits that I made within the animation, for example the tyre track going over the word ‘Roadkill Sandwich’, which is good feedback for me because it allows me to see where my strengths when using after effects.

As for my weaknesses within this project I believe is experimenting with after effects. Although I have improved from the last time I’ve used it and that peers and tutors have agreed that it’s a good piece of animation, I still think there is a lot more that I can do with after effects if I had a bit more time with it. What I mean by this is that my typography is just one word appearing after another, which is fine, but I would’ve like to see what it would look like if I had the words fly of screen, and be replaced by another set words that will come in from another side of the screen, or maybe use arcs to make the words move about and jiggle depending on what it is. Plus I believe that because my idea is an advert and that the style of the advert is very quick and loud, I don’t think that there were any effects I could have added that would have the same impact than if I was to tell a story like some of my other peers, who agree with me on this statement.

If I was to re-do this project I would definitely experiment a bit more with what effects and animation I could add to my idea like words that drop from the top of the screen like bricks, or float down like a feather. Or maybe change up my idea to a crazy story that will allow me to think new ideas of how some of the words will act when my narrator tells the story.

After a long hard day on Thursday, spending all my time in front of a screen in After Effects I finally mange to complete the animation. I’m not surprised really because the last animation I created in After Effects took me roughly a day as well, and I’ll admit that I’ve come to like After Effects a lot more now that I’m animating text instead of a character.

At first I was going for the simplicity of having just text appear on the screen to match the voice, but I began to approach the end of the animation I felt as if I can add a lot more to the animation to make it look appealing.

First I started with the title of the product and looked at what I can change about it to make it look more snazzy, like changing the font or maybe mess with the colours a bit. So I decided to sketch out and mess around with a few positions, colour changes, and font styles. Eventually I made my decision and added it to animation which paid off because it looks pretty good.

After this I went a bit crazy and started to mess with some of the other scenes that I was going to add, for example when the word ‘Roadkill Sandwich’ appeared I animated a Tyre track running over the word. And when sales price appears on the screen a animated it so it would flash, and then dollar signs would appear behind him.

So once again I’ve changed my idea for another assignment, originally my topic for this animation was going to be about Music, but I’ve suddenly changed my idea to an advertisement for a drink that I made up called the Crazy Radical Apple Pineapple Juice (a.k.a CRAP Juice), this mostly because I find that this idea is a lot funnier than the other one, I can really picture how I want the animation.

In my head I imagine the animation and script to be slightly fast paced to keep the audience attracted to what my actor is saying, I’ve included words like ‘Incredible’ and ‘Amazing’ to make the product that is completely pointless sound that like it’s something that you would need on a day-to-day bases. Something similar to Commercial Guy from Family Guy.

What I like about these two videos is the how energetic the salesman Al Harrington is in the commercials, which I want to apply to the voice actor of this animation.

As for the animation, I want the words to be big, bold and colourful to attract the attention of viewers, kind of similar to the way they use typography the ‘I Like Trains’ Music Video by TomSka. What I like about the video, in terms of the typography, is that the text appears as the musicians sing the lyrics.

After some thoughts and drama moments about what I should talk about for the Typography Project, I’ve decided the topic that I want to talk about is Music.

I feel this is a good approach because I can talk a lot about Music and I have a couple of ideas of what topics I want to discuss for 30 seconds, which is either a band that I like (Kings of Leon, Foo Fighters, etc…), why it inspires me, or something like what music means to me.

So far I’ve created a first draft:

“What is music to me? Music to me is more than listening to my favourite Band or Musician. It’s more than saving up all of my pocket money to buy that are CD that I’ve always wanted. It’s a lot more than travelling for miles in a cramped, sweaty, old car to go to a festival. Music for me… is my inspiration, my drive, my life. Without it my life would be devoid of colour and sound, and everything would be silent and black and white”.

After a good, long, well needed break from the Easter holiday, it’s time for a new project for the new term. The new project is to create a 30ish second animation using typography to portray a character. So far I’ve done a bit of research into various speeches in Movies, Television and Video Games, so I get some inspiration on what character I can create and what my script will be about.